The Winner's Circle
by Heero de Fanel
Summary: Post Sen/CS IV, mild SPOILERS. Kurt and Juna have an announcement to make, and the reaction they get from Ash and Musse isn't exactly what they expected. Little bit of fluff, little bit of crack.


**The Winner's Circle**

"So… that's that," Juna mumbled, her cheeks bright red as she squeezed the hand acting as her (much needed, Goddess above) lifeline, "Long story short, Kurt and I are – uh, we're… yeah."

Ash stared blankly.

Musse stared blankly.

Meanwhile, Juna was vaguely aware of Kurt taking a deep breath beside her, evidently as nervous as she was, but it was difficult to notice anything else, hyper focused as she was on her fellow Thors graduates…

… Which made her jump all the higher when Ash dropped his head without preamble and swore. Loudly.

**"Fuck!"**

Kurt blinked, visibly startled by the blonde's profane outburst, while Juna could only gape in confusion as Musse broke into a fiendishly wide grin, practically skipping over to grab her other hand.

"Congratulations to you both!" she declared grandly, winking at the flummoxed pair with no small amount of triumph. "It makes my heart sing to know you've finally gotten your act together after all this time. Why, I can't envision a more perfect match; well, perhaps myself and our former instructor during simpler days, but alas, that's doomed to remain the dream of a many a heartsick maiden – "

"You couldn't have waited two weeks?!" Ash interrupted, reaching into his jacket pocket with an irritated scowl. "Damn it all, one might have even done it!"

"What in Aidios' name are you ranting about…?" a completely lost Kurt asked, only to immediately put the pieces together when he saw his friend pull out his wallet with a resigned expression on his face. "Wait, don't tell me – "

"Y-You two _bet _on this?!" Juna finished, the look on her face a fascinating cross between horror and outrage.

"Oh, come now. This is just harmless fun. What's a friendly wager between former classmates?" Musse replied merrily, reaching out to playfully pat Ash on the cheek and giggling when he tried to swat her hand away. "Don't forget the interest we agreed the winner would receive!"

"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled, reluctantly handing over the mira with an expression that might very well have been called a pout on anyone else. "Take your damn money and shut it already."

"A pleasure doing business with you," she said, flashing a grin at him that Kurt was fairly sure was meant to spike Ash's blood pressure in the most 'charming' way possible. "But seeing as how our account's been settled, we should really inform the others, shouldn't we?"

"Guess so," he agreed, pointedly ignoring Kurt's exasperated groan.

"… Others?" Juna squeaked, her eyes wide.

"Eh, y'know how it goes. A few people wanted in on the action once they heard about it. Kinda turned into a pool."

"There's a **pool?!**"

"Ugh. I feel as though I'm going to regret this," Kurt said, his left eyebrow starting to twitch, "but I'd rather appreciate it if you could elaborate on the participants."

Ash crossed his arms, thinking. "Hmm. Off the top of my head? Schwarzer, Altina, Sara, pretty much everyone else in our year..."

"Okay," he sighed, truthfully not all that surprised, "that's quite – "

"… Some of old Class VII, Instructor Towa, the principal…"

"Wait, what?! Why are they – "

"… The prince, the Silver Streak…"

"Are you seri – of course you are, that's about the most foolish question I could have asked."

Musse made a commiserating noise. "I once heard Machias say that logic is panic's prey. Perhaps there's some truth to that adage?"

"I'm not dignifying that," and much to the chagrin of the pair in question, the list continued on without mercy.

"… Her mom, her brother and sister, your mom... a couple of others too, I think. Or maybe more than a couple. The pot's actually pretty big," Ash finally finished, unable to keep from smirking in spite of the recent blow to his wallet. "We didn't think the group would grow this much, actually. Surprise surprise."

"Heehee. You took the words right out of my mouth," Musse chimed in, reaching over to tug insistently at his sleeve. "But the two of us – and our adorable white haired co-coordinator, of course – can deal with everything regarding that. As far as I'm concerned, both Juna and yourself should set your worries aside and take the time to relish in the newfound joys of intimacy instead~!"

Ash snickered as he turned to walk away, Musse following not a second later. "In broad daylight? Damn, Egret."

A dainty eye roll. "I meant nothing untoward and you know it."

"Okay, wait up!" Juna demanded, stopping them both in their tracks (and making a mental note to have a word with Allie later, the traitor). "That's it? After all that you're just gonna bail?"

Ash wheeled around, his eyebrow raised. "What, you want a parade or something? I mean, good on the both of you for taking care of business and and all that, but man. It sure took long enough. The hell were you two waiting for, anyway?"

"And on that note," Musse interjected, smiling gently at Juna and Kurt as she grasped the blonde by the shoulders and turned him back in the direction of the door, "we have a number of calls to make. Congratulations again, and rest assured that everyone involved will be very happy for you… even if some of us don't express it as well as others."

"Zip it," he shot back with a roll of his eyes. "Don't you have money to count?"

"I can multitask."

And with that, a poleaxed Kurt and a furiously blushing Juna were left alone, both of them trying to process what exactly had just happened.

"Well. That was… hardly what I expected," he started delicately, smiling a little in spite of himself when she sidled up next to him and buried her face against his shoulder with a theatrically loud groan.

"There was a pool?" she repeated, her words muffled by the fabric and her cheeks the color of her hair. "Seriously? There was a pool?"

"Apparently so," he said dryly. "With some of our family as participants, no less. Some things truly do only take place in either real life or strange fiction."

"How could Mom even let Ken and Nana bet, anyway? Why didn't Dad say anything?!" Juna groused, pulling away to look at him indignantly, green eyes sparking with embarrassment and irritation. "T-They'd better not have used their allowances on something this dumb!"

Kurt shrugged. "Perhaps she laid down a wager in their name?"

"Vetoed, still not allowed! That's underage gambling by proxy, I have to investigate crap like that…!"

"I know," he agreed with a patient sigh, "but we really should look on the bright side. The proverbial cat's out of the bag and it sounds like everyone's going to be happy to hear it… though I'm not sure how long that state of affairs will last once Musse and Ash start calling around."

"Goddess, don't remind me," she muttered, relaxing against him when he wrapped an arm around her waist to draw her close, her lips curling upwards all the while. "And I hate to admit it, but I'm sorta curious now. Who do you think won, anyway?"

He hummed at that, his brow creasing in thought before he decided that yes, it would absolutely be worth what came next.

"Me, all things considered."

Her blush reappeared with a vengeance right before she started furiously smacking his arm, and his laughter (had he ever laughed like this before he met her and the rest of Class VII?) was apparently contagious because before long, she was laughing too.

It was a wonderful sound, they thought.

"You're such a dork," Juna managed, her shoulders still shaking even as she clung to him. "Been taking notes from Instructor Rean and Alisa, huh?"

"Maybe. I've always been a diligent student, remember?" he teased, and she shook her head with a smile before she closed her eyes and gently tugged him down by his lapels because yeah, she totally did.

* * *

AN: Welp, so much for the more gen resolution :P I'll probably pen a longer fic for this pair at some point, but till then - hope you enjoyed the crack! Got more shortfics and bookworm stuff on the way too, plus a few gen/pre-ship ideas, so I guess I'll wait and see what my inner muse wants to write next...


End file.
